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Father’s Day in Busan

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Tim decided that he wanted sushi and the beach for Father’s Day, so that was the plan.

It was Tim’s first time driving to Busan. He had been several times before by train. We headed to Sushi Berry. Clarissa fell asleep on the way and slept over an hour. We were thankful for that because we knew she would last the whole day that way.

Like many places in Korea, parking at Sushi Berry was awful. We drove around for a bit before deciding to park on a back road, uphill behind a few other cars. We got to the very small restaurant (I think there were four tables and a bar) and were told it would be a 30 minute wait.

There was a nice table with an umbrella outside for us to sit while we waited. I don’t think it took 30 minutes before they asked if they could seat us at the bar. They handed us an English menu. There were so many things to choose from. I almost always get a California roll, but the Philadelphia roll looked interesting. Tim wanted the spicy tuna roll and the dragon roll. The man making the sushi said, “No, that’s too much. The rolls are very big. I recommend three.” So I decided to try the Philadelphia roll another time.

There was one guy making sushi, so it took a while. Before it was ready, they moved us from the bar to a table. They did bring us a cabbage salad while we waited. We asked for rice for Clarissa and they brought her some. When they brought the sushi, I had to take a picture. First of all, it was huge. And second, it was beautiful!

In all, we paid 25,000 won (like $20). We left happy and full.

The plan was to head to Songjeong Beach. It was a little further out than Haeundae Beach. But we have all been to Haeundae before and Tim had been to all of the Busan beaches but this one. Driving past, it looked like a nice beach. There were many surfers. It had a similar feel to Ilsan. However, there was no parking! Well, there were plenty of parking spots, but they were all full.

So we found a place to park a few miles away and looked on Trip Advisor. The sushi was good, but we didn’t want to drive almost two hours each way just for that. We decided on Busan Citizen Park. It was about 40 minutes from where we were, but on the way back to Daegu.

We found the coordinates on Waze and they brought you to the backside of the park, not where the parking was. Tim had to drive around in a big loop to find the parking. But it was worth it!

The park was great. It had a big metal fountain/water fall. There were several themed gardens and a pagoda. There was even a pinwheel garden.

There was live music and a walkway filled with vendors selling crafts and some food as well. There was even a garden maze. Clarissa had a great time. I told her she was in charge and we had to follow her. She did very well!

Next, we found the Pororo library. It was actually a large version of the cartoon’s house. Inside, they had a real library and you could pay to go inside and play. She was excited that we found “her friends” and wanted me to take her picture with them. The funny thing is that she hasn’t seen much of the show. But she recognizes the characters because they are very popular in Korea.

The map said that there are five different playgrounds. We played at three. She went to the tree house playground, the geometric looking one, and the panda one.

Koreans take their exercise very seriously. There is exercise equipment at most parks and even rest stops. I thought it was interesting that this park had kid sized exercise equipment. Another fascinating sight was the men walking on stilts. Several of them passed by while we were playing at the geometric playground.

We left the park about 6:30 since we knew we had another hour and a half to get home. We ate rest stop food for dinner. Most rest stops have several sit down restaurant like food courts. No fast food other then the CU convenience store. We ended up getting home about 8:30. We were ready to be done with the car, but really enjoyed our day in Busan.

Last year, we took KTX on our Father’s Day excursion to Busan. I think it was 40,000 won for the three of us to go by KTX. Honestly, it cost about 30,000 won in tolls this trip. We did different things. But if you want to go to the beach, it would definitely be less hassle to do KTX and subway.